Lawman’s Witness (Dry Gulch, Montana #3)

Chapter One

As he sharpened the knife, he found himself humming an old song. Something about all the ways to leave a lover. He’d left a lot of lovers. An expensive bangle or cold, hard cash often did the trick to smooth over his exit so he could walk away clean.

What he didn’t like was one that gave him trouble.

The few that had put up an argument had gotten to see the ugly side of him he worked to keep hidden.

After glimpsing the less charming side of him, they were smart enough to realize the affair was over and graciously accept his goodbye gift, glad to disappear from his life and not look back.

But this latest one… He shook his head. He hadn’t expected her to be a problem.

She was young, a student, a free spirit.

Unfortunately, she, too, had a hidden part of her that when it came out wasn’t just ugly, it was dangerous.

She’d fooled him and would now make more than a fool out of him if he didn’t stop her.

This one had turned treacherous with her threats and her desperation. No, this one wasn’t going away quietly.

He gently touched the pad of his thumb to the knife and felt the bite of the blade as he remembered the gleam in her eyes when she told him all the ways she would destroy him and the life he’d built.

His fingers began to ache as he gripped the knife handle harder at the memory.

He had tried to warn her where her threats would get her, but she wouldn’t listen.

He would either divorce his wife and marry her or she would bury him.

She’d given him no choice. He told her he would make her dreams come true when they met tonight. He couldn’t wait for the moment when she realized she’d set her sights on the wrong man.

As he carefully wrapped the knife in a cloth and put it in his briefcase, he couldn’t get that darned tune out of his head. This time, there was only one way to leave his lover.

Amy Sue Brand was lost, because this couldn’t be the place she’d rented.

She fought back the sense of panic that threatened to overwhelm her as she tried to see into the pitch blackness.

“This is what happened when a Montana girl right off the farm goes to the big city,” she said, her voice cracking a little inside her SUV as she made another pass through the cul-de-sac.

Her headlights revealed the skeletons of houses still under construction before she reached the address she’d been given.

“This can’t be it,” she said, not for the first time. Yet this was definitely the address she had on her phone along with the code for the door in the back. Why hadn’t she just gone to a hotel? Because she’d gotten a good deal online for a small apartment for the week.

The building was narrow, two stories high, and it did look as if the construction might have been completed. She checked the address again on her phone; maybe she wasn’t wrong. Maybe this was it. She just hadn’t expected it to be so far from Billings or so spooky out here with few to no lights.

Low clouds hung over the city like a wet blanket suffocating any light. Out here miles away there was only blackness and no sign of people anywhere near. The stark outlines of unfinished structures rose out of the night like ghosts in what appeared to be a new subdivision.

If only she’d gotten here in the daylight.

She’d been held up first with road construction and then by a semi rollover that blocked both lanes of the two-lane highway.

If that hadn’t made her late enough, she’d gotten caught in a cattle drive not far out of Dry Gulch.

A father and son had been moving the herd down the middle of the road.

Now the night was black; she was tired and felt completely turned around. She looked at the narrow, tall building in her headlights. This was the short-term rental apartment she’d booked? All the windows were dark. Was the place even finished? Maybe.

A gust of wind rocked her SUV, cold blowing through the cracks around her car door.

She wouldn’t be surprised to wake up to snow in the morning.

At twenty-eight, she’d seen it snow every month in Montana one year or another, she thought, instead of thinking she might have been scammed by the nice-sounding young man who’d rented her the place sight unseen.

He’d required cash for the full week up front, which she’d sent him.

Remembering his directions, she pulled alongside the narrow building, driving through the deep shadow to the back. “Don’t let this be a scam,” she said under her breath as she imagined what her sister would have to say about this.

Her headlights shone on a huge pile of dirt directly behind the unit where she was told she would find the back door. Determined to see this through, she grabbed her purse and, shoving open her door with effort against the wind, stepped out into the night.

Shivering from the cold, she moved to the rear of the SUV and opened the hatch to get her suitcase and winter coat. It was too cold and windy to make two trips, so she had to trust this was the right place as she made her way along the dark side of the building next to her vehicle.

The young man had told her that there was a light by the back door, so all she had to do was key in the code he’d given her and she’d be all set.

As she turned the corner of the building, she found it much darker back here. She could barely make out the outline of the house right next door. Why had she dropped her phone into her purse? She was going to need the flashlight to even find the door, let alone the keypad to put in the code.

With a growing sense of dread, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d been scammed and was now wasting time. She should just go to a hotel. But if this was the apartment she’d seen online…

As she dug blindly in her large, deep purse for her phone, she moved cautiously along the back of the building.

“Just get this over with,” she whispered to herself.

Yep, her sister Josie would have a whole lot to say about this.

Which was exactly why she hadn’t told Josie about the cute little apartment she’d rented instead of staying at the hotel with the rest of the workshop attendees.

At least the photos the man had sent her had been of the inside of a cute little apartment.

Her ears pricked up for a moment. Was that the sound of a car she’d heard over the wind?

She moved quicker, feeling her way along the back wall.

She’d just found a slightly recessed doorway and was still groping for her phone when she was startled by the sound of car doors slamming and a vehicle engine as one car left.

Someone was here. She froze for an instant before she heard voices, a man’s and a woman’s muffled by the window. A few seconds later she caught movement as the two passed by to go to the back of the house next door. A light came on inside the house.

With a flood of relief, Amy Sue realized that she wasn’t completely alone out here.

Though she couldn’t imagine that the house was occupied.

As lights came on upstairs, she saw that she was right.

The entire house was still under construction.

She could see the bare studs of an unfinished wall and plastic hanging from a doorway as a woman stepped into view, a man right behind her.

With a shock she saw that the woman had a blindfold over her eyes.

Both were dressed in semiformal attire as if headed out to dinner.

From where Amy Sue stood in the darkness behind the small apartment building, she saw the man move the plastic aside as he urged the blindfolded woman deeper into the house.

The woman, who’d appeared excited at first, now seemed reluctant to go any farther into the construction area.

She was trying to untie the covering on her eyes, but the man seemed equally determined to stop her.

While Amy Sue couldn’t see the man’s face, she could see his hands pulling hers away from the blindfold. The woman shook her head adamantly and struggled to push past him back the way they’d come in.

Spellbound by what she was seeing, Amy Sue hadn’t moved, had hardly taken a breath.

She saw the man grab the woman roughly as she tore off the blindfold.

He had his arms around her as if trying to restrain her from leaving.

It all seemed to happen in seconds, Amy Sue’s horror growing as she watched them locked in a battle of wills.

But just as quickly as it had started, the woman stopped struggling and slumped against her date. As she did, he jerked the construction plastic from the doorway, wrapping it around her as he began to lower her body to the floor.

Amy Sue stared in shock at the bright red stain on the man’s white dress shirt and the blood-stained knife in his hand. Her held breath expelled in a gasp as she realized what she’d just witnessed.

She stumbled back, bumping into the rear wall of the building.

As she reached out to steady herself, she activated the light by the door she hadn’t been able to find earlier.

Now standing in a blinding puddle of gold, her gaze flew to the house next door to see the man framed in the window looking directly at her.

As their gazes met, she felt stunned.

She recognized him.

For an instant, her feet refused to move.

Her fingers opened, dropping her suitcase.

She turned, running back the way she’d come only to crash into the front of her SUV as it appeared out of the darkness.

Limping, she worked her way around to the driver’s side in terror that she would hear his footfalls on the path behind her.

Hands shaking, she unlocked the driver’s-side door, yanking it open and throwing herself into the seat behind the wheel. As she grabbed the door handle and slammed it shut, she frantically reached to start the engine, the doors locking as the engine roared.

She realized her phone was still in the bottom of her purse, but she didn’t dare take the time to find it. Slamming the SUV into gear, she glanced out into the darkness, terrified that she would see the man running toward her with the knife in his hand.

As she hit the gas, the vehicle jumped forward, startling her to realize that she’d accidently put the car into Drive in her panic. She managed to slam on the brakes before the SUV crashed into the pile of dirt illuminated in her headlights.

Fingers trembling, she threw the vehicle into Reverse and sped backward, flying past the side of the building and coming to a stop at an odd angle in the middle of the cul-de-sac. When she looked up, she saw him.

He was standing on the second story balcony of the house where he’d murdered the woman. She stared at him for a moment, confused. He hadn’t come after her? Why was he just standing there so calmly watching her? Didn’t he realize she was going to the police to tell them what she’d seen?

She shuddered, chilled at the sight of him as she slammed the car into Drive and hit the gas. As she sped off, she looked back and saw that the balcony was empty.

He was coming after her now.

Her whole body shook even as her mind tried to make sense of what she’d seen.

Gripping the wheel and fighting the urge to drive too fast, she kept watching her rearview mirror expecting to see the man’s headlights suddenly appear behind her as she drove toward the lights of the city.

She didn’t pull over until she reached a well-lit busy gas station.

Digging her phone out of her purse, she called 911.

“I just saw a murder!”